Professor Jean-Claude Guédon of the University of Montreal will give a talk on the crisis in scientific publishing, Friday, Oct. 11, in the Bethe Auditorium of Clark Hall. Refreshments will be available at 8:30 a.m., and Guédon's presentation begins at 9. This event is free and open to the public.
Guédon is one of the leading experts today on the subject of the crisis in scientific publishing. In the introduction to his 2001 study "In Oldenburg's Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing," he writes: "In the last 50 years, publishers have managed to transform scholarly journals -- traditionally, a secondary, unpromising publishing venture at best -- into big business."
His paper (see www.arl.org/arl/proceedings/138/guedon.html) presents the most comprehensive analysis to date of the commercialization of scientific publishing that is causing increasing difficulties for scientific communication and higher education around the world. Problems impeding the exchange of scholarly information, so clearly defined by Guédon for the sciences, are now beginning to affect the social sciences and humanities as well.
Guédon is the founder of Surfaces, the first Canadian electronic scholarly journal, which began publishing in 1991 and is still in existence. He holds a Ph.D. in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently is professor of comparative literature at the University of Montreal. His interest in both theoretical and practical issues regarding electronic publishing has led him to produce numerous papers on the subject as well as to present at conferences worldwide.
Guédon's presentation is co-sponsored by Cornell Library and the Department of Science and Technology Studies.
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